Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, put British noses firmly out of joint on Saturday by reiterating his Government’s opposition to a global Tobin tax on banking transactions.
Downing Street spent much of the next day in reverse gear, pointing out that a transaction tax was only one of several options raised by Gordon Brown as insurance against future banking collapses.
It is a sign, however, of the acute difficulty of forging genuine consensus among G20 governments that Mr Geithner and Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, spent part of Saturday on behind-the-scenes efforts to iron out differing interpretations of the remuneration guidelines agreed in Pittsburgh.
Mr Brown’s call for industry to engage with the G20 sounded ready-made for a global panel with the gravitas to fight for the finance sector’s cause.
Step forward the B20? If you have never heard of it, that is because this group, unveiled by Stephen Green, the executive chairman of HSBC, at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, has so far failed to gain much traction. Apart from an initial meeting before the G20 summit in London in April, it has faded into the background at precisely the time that its presence was being legitimised by external events, both in the banking industry and in the wider economy.
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But could it now, in another incarnation, be back on the agenda?
I understand that Mr Brown’s call for banks to engage with the G20 is likely to galvanise a more co-ordinated response from the financial sector, with many of the world’s largest banks by market capitalisation involved in tentative discussions about creating a new industry-wide body. Watch this space.
China here they come
Mr Green’s enthusiasm for all things Chinese is manifesting itself in new forms. His recent treatise on morality and business, Good Value, which was shortlisted for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, has been translated into Mandarin. And Michael Geoghegan, the chief executive of HSBC, is relocating to Hong Kong, a useful shot across the bows of British politicians and regulators, should they decide to adopt go-it-alone measures that disadvantage London-based institutions.
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Mr Green has also made no secret of his desire for HSBC to list on the Shanghai stock exchange when regulations permit. He will be at the front of the queue to do so, but there will be some less obvious chief executives right behind him. Among them is likely to be Paul Walsh, of Diageo. His interest in seeing the FTSE 100 drinks producer list on the Chinese mainland would be unlikely to involve raising new capital. Crucially, however, depending upon China’s rules on foreign ownership also being relaxed, it would give Diageo an acquisition currency to increase its stake in Shui Jing Fang, a local drinks company.
Among British business leaders, Mr Walsh and Mr Green are not alone. Peter Sands, the chief executive of Standard Chartered, and Tidjane Thiam, the new chief of Prudential, are also keen to secure new stock market listings in Asia (Standard Chartered is already quoted in Hong Kong) to give themselves additional local credibility.
Such arrangements also offer international kudos to the stock exchanges in question, augmenting their status as aspiring hubs for global capital flows.
The British companies considering a Shanghai listing have not been holding their breath, though — and a good thing, too. The Chinese Government has been pledging for many years to introduce the reforms necessary to allow foreign companies to list in Shanghai, but there has been little action so far.
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Situation very vacant
If there is anyone in the City who has not been linked with the chairmanship at ITV, perhaps they could make themselves known now?
One man who was suggested to have been shortlisted for the job last week, Robert Swannell, the retiring Citigroup banker, has had no contact with the headhunter conducting the search and apparently has no interest in the job.
It could hardly be otherwise. Having successfully dissuaded Simon Fox, the chief executive of HMV, from taking the same job at ITV during the summer, pursuing his own discussions would have raised eyebrows in the City. Mr Swannell, remember, is the chairman of HMV.
There must also be some doubt as to whether John Nelson, the Hammerson chairman, is on the list, too. Mr Nelson is understood to have been the preferred chairman of Tony Ball, the former BSkyB chief executive, who fell out with ITV over the terms of his appointment in September.
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